Science Outreach

We could also use more outreach programs like these put together than a few new Bio1A labs:

Third-grade students at Berkeley's Oxford Elementary School overcame the gross factor to touch a pig's liver during an anatomy lesson last week run by UC Berkeley undergrads in Professor Marian Diamond's Anatomy Enrichment Program.

Encouraging undergraduates to apply their studies outside of the lecture hall and to promote science in the community, such as in a classroom like this, is just as worthwhile as inspiring them to research: it helps give science a voice and could inspire kids to pursue science later in their lives. Teaching is also a great way to learn about a subject, which would also reinforce the quality of education Berkeley undergraduates are acquiring.

East Bay Overpass Collapses

Oh fuck.

A huge ball of fire from an exploding gasoline tanker truck caused an overpass in the MacArthur Maze in the East Bay near the Bay Bridge to collapse on top of the highway below early Sunday, virtually ensuring major traffic problems and confusion for weeks to come.

"We're screwed, huh? That's going to be rough on everybody," said Joe Dorey, 55, an engineer who lives in Oakland.

Yup, particularly family and friends coming up for graduation in a couple weeks(!) It's like driving in Berkeley wasn't bad enough, and then the highway explodes. Great. Just great.

Spirit of Affirmative Action

I found this op-ed regarding Affirmative Action and identity in the Daily Bruin and thought I'd press the "disseminate widely" button:

As students of an institution with a humbling legacy of civil rights activism, we should be shamed at our complacency in this facade of tolerance and equality.

In fact, given the undeniable correlation between race and socio-economic status in this country, to be color-blind is to deliberately ignore the appalling disparities inherent in our society.

To be color-blind is to be perfectly content with the fact that a meager 392 black students were accepted this year to UCLA.

And to be perfectly content with this outrageous statistic speaks loudly of a culture marred by ignorance and cultural insensitivity.

Expanding Science

Here's an article about the recent advances in biology and how Berkeley is responding:

While the Human Genome Project required some 13 years and $2.7 billion taxpayer dollars, Rine predicts that within ten years, the average American will be able to have his or her personal genome sequenced for less than $1,000.

...

Ironically, the very advances that have opened these new vistas into the life sciences have left a key component of Berkeley's undergraduate biology program lagging behind. More than 1,200 undergraduates per year take the Introductory Biology course, also known as Bio1A. This instructional behemoth includes a laboratory component that runs more like an aircraft carrier with great momentum but one that has difficulty changing course.

This state of affairs won't last for long. Last April, Rine was awarded $1 million by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute expressly to revamp Bio1A's labs.

I'm perplexed as to why an introductory biology lab needs to change because of advancements made in genomics. Regardless of what genes control what biological pathways, Bio1A will still need to focus on the fundamentals of biology lab work to prepare students for possible future research careers. Those fundamentals can be taught with or without an extra $1 million, as they have been taught in the past. Since the money is not needed to necessarily teach the subject matter, it only serves to develop lab assignments into more interesting lessons, albeit the lessons will be the same.

Will this instill interest in research and encourage more students to pursue research? Probably, to some extent. But is it the most worthwhile of expenditures the biology department can muster? With about 1,200 students taking the course each year, $1 million could be better spent on reinforcing the quality of education for all students, by offering subsidized note-taking services, employing more tutors, and adding more review sessions. It could also be used to set up new undergraduate research programs that recruit students in the class and place them into various labs on campus. We have something like this already, but it's not specialized for biology and it's just too competitive (hundreds of applicants for only a handful of positions).

These ideas wouldn't cost much but might have a greater impact: students will feel more supported in their studies and will also have higher access to new opportunities. New labs are nice, but we have bigger issues to deal with.

Cue in a Dane Cook joke

I know it's late.

I know I perhaps might be delusional.

But there is honestly a scientific word describing how a strong gravitational field stretches objects into long thin shapes.

That word is spaghettification.

If you were a deep-space astronaut you'd worry about Black holes spaghettificating you.

I'm not making this up.





You're not helping me do my homework, internets.

Humanist Manifesto

Lately, studying for chemistry tends to lead me to other passions. An example, if you will:

Pondering my core ideals and what I've learned about myself in college, I feel that the Humanist philosophy most closely matches my own, and though expected, I'm still a bit surprised at how uplifting it feels to read more about the ideology. I do have beliefs and I do appreciate spirituality, however it simply feels more right to me to believe in our connections throughout humanity versus our connections into the supernatural.

Humanists are concerned for the well being of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of human rights and civil liberties in an open, secular society and maintain it is a civic duty to participate in the democratic process and a planetary duty to protect nature’s integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable manner.

Thus engaged in the flow of life, we aspire to this vision with the informed conviction that humanity has the ability to progress toward its highest ideals. The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.

That last line gives me chills. Hoooah.

Fellow Seniors:

Knowing that there are exactly 2 weeks left of class in this semester, and also knowing that this is my last semester, I have deduced for the umpteenth time that I am graduating oh-so soon.

If you are in the same predicament and are also failing to realize it, here are some reminders for what you should be doing now:

1) Take Senior Pictures. You and your kin will likely want to remember who you were when you finished here, so have some professional pictures taken of yourself. If you choose not to buy them, they will still be placed in the yearbook to commemorate your college career. Schedule an appointment online. Here's more information from the office:

Walk-ins are more than welcome and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. The photographer will be taking portraits all week long from 9:00 am – 6:00 pm with the last sitting at 5:30 pm. The April 23 - May 11 session is the last of Senior Portraits sitting for the year. If your friends haven't gotten their portraits taken by the 11th, they won't make it into the yearbook!

2) Buy the Blue & Gold Yearbook. If you can afford textbooks you can surely handle just one more pricey book. You ought to keep at least one book that you'll actually enjoy reading later on, and this could be it.

3) Graduation Fair. Be sure to pick up convocation tickets, caps and gowns, and various other items such as personalized graduation announcements, class rings, and diploma frames. This is going on 10a-4p today, Wednesday, and Thursday on Lower Sproul.

4) Plan on Attending Commencement Convocation. I am amazed at how many of my friends are planning on skipping this graduation event. It's the best time to celebrate graduation together with friends from outside your major. Also, you might as well take advantage of the one time Berkeley is actually going to reward you for surviving the past few years here. The degree is great, but why not also enjoy some of the honor in the ceremony? Hope to see you there on May 9th!

5) Look up More Information. Because I won't do it all for you. Check the Seniors website and even this engineering website that snootily claims to have all you need to know to graduate.

First Integrated Prom

Exactly how much further must we go before we reach a just and diverse society that appreciates a sense of understanding between cultures? Gauging from this story, a lot further:

Students of Turner County High School started what they hope will become a new tradition: Black and white students attended the prom together for the first time on Saturday.

In previous years, parents had organized private, segregated dances for students of the school in rural Ashburn, Georgia, 160 miles south of Atlanta.

Yes, this is the world the younger generation is inheriting.

Adkinson's sister, Mindy Bryan, attended a segregated prom in 2001.

"There was not anybody that I can remember that was black," she said. "The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It's nothing racial at all."

Minus the detail about folks organizing different proms for different colors, yup, nothing racial at all.

Nichole Royal, 18, said black students could have gone to the prom, but didn't.

"I guess they feel like they're not welcome," she said.

Really? Black students don't want to attend a White-organized White prom in the South?

Principal Stone said he doesn't plan to stop the private proms.

"That's going to be up to the parents. That's part of being in America. If they want to do that for the kids, then that's fine," he said.

While Stone lacks the power to directly stop these private race-oriented proms, he caves to the community mentality that this racial tension is somehow unproblematic, likely because he shares the belief that self-imposed segregation is harmless.

In reality, this culture of ignorance hurts their community and our nation as a whole. Misunderstandings between two dominant cultures in the area only serves to worsen their relationships with each other. Considering these groups of people will continue to have to share their towns, their schools, their workplaces and their media with one another, unavoidable day-to-day interactions will continually cause resentment and fear, with each side looking at the other as foreigners, not as neighbors.

Reading students' points of view in the article shows promise in that the upperclassmen voted for holding the school's first-ever integrated school prom, however there is still evidence of indoctrination, as might be expected. Some parents mentioned in the article were against the idea, and kept their children from attending because "they don't agree with being with the colored people." When these children grow up and continue to build our society, they will have to do so without a good understanding of different cultures. Rather, they will remember the fear their parents possessed when the idea of a simple dance was mentioned. Instead of having an open-minded new generation, we will have one that is perpetually frightened by differences. Instead of inspiring change and rapport between one another regardless of culture, they will be divided.

Community leaders in the area ought to move forward from this event, using it as a stepping stone for change. A few students decided to make a ripple by holding a dance at their school. They succeeded, and it should be the start of a community effort in fostering an environment of tolerance and understanding.

Bobby and I

Every online perch I call home must have an obligatory Bobby Burgess post. This is that post.

What helps most in processing through my warring emotions and primal desires is reading how others have acclimated and advanced onward, as Bobby accounts:

4/24/03
8/7/03
10/4/03
2/4/04
3/21/04
4/8/04
6/12/04

The timeline seems painfully familiar, and it never really ends, right? Stages are supposed to progress linearly, like Super Mario Brothers, but all I end up doing is taking the warp pipe back to start. For years this has happened: same girl, same game. It's pathetic.

I wrote this way back in 2003:

You visit me more in my dreams than you do in real life, and I pick up the phone to hear your voice because I stumble into a small pocketed oasis of my unconsciousness, where everything is alright again, only to have illusions fade, oases disappear, phones turn into drool-soaked pillows. My eyes open and everything is back to the way it was. And the way it is.

...

I’m going to carry on like I have been, happy ecstatic joyful and loving of life, because my life right now is going well, and I love my job and I love my friends and not thinking about you is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

Here we go again.

This wisdom-through-aging process is not working as intended. I might be defective.

"Orange and Maroon Effect" this Friday

The VT tragedy that took place on Monday is not a thing I am currently capable of putting words to, to give definition or to express solace. What must carry us all through this time is mutual love and respect, be it visible to many or as silent as prayer.

This Friday, April 20th, has been declared "a statewide day of mourning for the victims of Monday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech."

On Friday, Governor Kaine will participate in an interfaith prayer service in Monroe Park on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He has encouraged other communities in Virginia and across the nation to hold their own simultaneous ceremonies and participate in prayer services, beginning with the ringing of bells at noon, eastern daylight savings time.

That day is also being declared an "Orange and Maroon Effect" day:




Wear orange and maroon on Friday.

Whew!

I passed the CSET, but what the hay:

CSET examinations were developed specifically for use in teacher credentialing. To preclude the use of CSET scores for purposes other than credentialing (e.g., employment, assignment), scores of passing candidates are not reported.

Not assuming candidates are only as good as their weighted test scores. What a novel idea.

Decal Free Write #2

With less than a month of actual instruction, the 60 post minimum for my Decal looms ominously in the approaching horizon, eating babies and what not. Here's some free writing I did in class, where we made up the rest after the first line:

A man walks into a laundromat with a dog named Jesus. Actually, the dog's real name was always "Spot", that is, up until that fateful accident at the old oil refinery a few years back that almost claimed the man's life. Since his brush with death and subsequent accidental saving by a random, well-placed defecation by "Spot", the nearby neighborhood stray that lost his way and found himself in quite an oily situation, the man had seen the light, as some might say. Or, rather, he lost his mind, as many more would say.

Inside the laundromat, the man holds Jesus tightly, the dog rolled in white linens and a few dirty socks. The two of them stood before a lone washing machine, empty inside but covered with freshly uprooted flowers on top. The man's robe was also pure and white, but in the long walk to the laundromat it frequently fluttered upward and exposed much of his purity to passing cars and laughing children. 'Heathens', he thought, as he quickened his pace down the middle of the road, amidst honking cars.

Standing before his makeshift altar, the man quietly whispers lines from a few random pages of the Bible he memorized the day before. 'The ritual begins now', the man then asserts, inching his way to the washing machine. Jesus barks only once, and hides in the linens whimpering.

CBEST and Update

I finished up the CBEST today, the second of 2 tests I need to be on my way for teacher certification, and am happily letting you know this on my new computer. There's nothing like selfish materialism to offset the pangs of lost love.

Ah, sweet nothings!

ASUC Elections

In case you haven't heard (or smelled a peculiar stench), ASUC electioneering is now finished and the voting polls are open until Friday night. Vote online to help make the ordeal more bearable.

And vote CalServe. Please.

Stem-cell Research = Slavery

...so said one of the 34 legislators today that voted against loosening restrictions for federally funding embryonic stem-cell research:

"Its end is the way of death," said Brownback, a Republican presidential hopeful. "It kills a young human life. It harms us as a culture when we treat human life as property. We've done that. We don't like it. We don't like the history associated with it."

A few points of interest:

1) There is no real counterargument to the fact that slaves are, indeed, individual persons with their own individual self-awareness. Not so for Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs).

2) Slavery is a root cause of the current state of institutionalized racism. Not so for ESCs.

3) Slavery is the buying and selling of human beings as property, whereas ESC research is the use of extra cells after in vitro fertilization that are destined to be destroyed anyway. There is no buying and selling--instead, ESC research is about recycling material that was already being utilized.

4) Individual versus societal impact: Slavery gave benefits to individual owners but negative consequences to society in the form of race hatred. ESC research contributes more project ideas to individual scientists and greatly to science and the health of society.

Grinding Organs

In our decal class today, instead of the usual workshop, we encountered a short free-writing prompt given by our gracious, facilitating host. No rules, no restraints, just write for a bit of time. So I did, and I think some of my personal life has rubbed its way into my writing (god forbid), but I hope to start writing more frequently on other topics soon enough. This is fiction, by the way.

***

I grind organs. All afternoon of every day last week, and every day thereafter, I've extracted little clumps of living tissue from freshly euthanized animals. Their bodies are still warm when I make my incision, and fondle their insides for ripe targets. Isolated in plastic containers, I line up my specimens next to a complicated-looking lab instrument that resembles a power drill with a blunt bit. I turn on my tool and

I grind.

"There's little we can do to change this"
"Please..."
"You've not been honest with me"
"Please..."

My hand cramps from the effort and my nose protests the scent. Slowly, slowly the organs break down. Flecks of tissue climb the test tubes' sides. Guts, brains and all, dissolve into a lumpy lubricant for another machine.

"We can't go back to what we had"
"Please..."

When I grind organs, I must focus my attention on the heart.

"Please forgive and forget me"

Muscle turns to fibers turn to loose threads, and I continue to grind. The heart is the hardest organ to break. But it always does.

Soundtracks and Copyrights

I apologize for the dearth of new content, but this dark phase continues for another week.

In the meantime, Andrew's siren song of a mythical place where one can download video game soundtracks is juxtaposed in time next to a threat sent by Cal to its crew of mangy pirate students:

Dear Student,

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copying and sharing copyrighted materials without permission is illegal.

[...blah blah blah...]

To comply with the law and to protect yourself from possible litigation, we strongly encourage you to remove illegally-obtained copyrighted material from your computer, and to stop downloading copyrighted material illegally if you do so now.

A curious brow I raise: I understand that the only reason I am getting this warning from my university is due to the RIAA's recently increased fervor in nabbing college students in the act of bringing sexy back and sharing it with all of their friends. Just a week ago, 405 pre-litigation settlement letters were sent to colleges across the nation. Berkeley received 19 notices. Sucks to be you, guys.

What I would like to understand more is the risk involved in downloading other forms of copyrighted media. Is there a Video Game Soundtrack Association of Japan that is just as interested in protecting producers' and artists' rights as the RIAA? Does downloading the Zelda theme song make me a bad person? A nerd, maybe, but also an easy target for lawsuits?

I know it still is considered illegal, but who, if anyone, pursues flagrant videogame soundtrack piracy? Inquiring minds want answers!

And some respite from midterms.